warns

Herzog calls for an inquiry into the October 7 attacks during a Knesset session amid political gridlock following elections.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has urged lawmakers to “leave no stone unturned” and launch an investigation into the October 7 attacks by Hamas in a speech opening the new parliamentary session, after the election left Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc short of a majority.

Herzog called on party leaders to “make concessions” and do “everything possible to avoid a repeat election” at the swearing-in of newly elected members in the 26th Knesset on Tuesday.

The Israeli president tasked opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot with forming the country’s next government on Sunday, starting the clock for him to cobble together a coalition within 28 days, with a possible 14-day extension.

While also short of a parliamentary majority, Eisenkot and his allies hope to use their newfound legislative power to move rapidly to establish an independent inquiry into the October 7 attacks.

“I am committed in this complex situation to form a national emergency government as quickly as possible,” Eisenkot said, ahead of the Knesset session.

Netanyahu has previously refused to form a commission to investigate the attacks, arguing that a panel appointed by the Israeli Supreme Court would be biased against the government.

On Iran, Herzog said in his speech that Tehran “does not stop even for a moment in its plots and threats, whether directly or through its partners”, repeating the notion from his speech officially delegating Eisenkot to form the new government.

The president said Israel “must fortify the alliance” with the United States amid increasing disapproval of Israel among the US public due to the genocidal war on Gaza and the US-Israel war on Iran.

“Alongside the stubborn and determined war against those who seek to harm us, we must build a stable political horizon in the region with our neighbours,” he said, adding that Israel must “strengthen and even add to the peace agreements with Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain”.

Political gridlock

The speaker of the Knesset, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, will remain in the caretaker position until a new vote is held.

“Yashar, Eisenkot’s party, has already submitted 61 signatures of new parliamentarians demanding that the vote take place as soon as possible,” said Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from the occupied West Bank.

Netanyahu and his bloc continue to protest the result of the October 27 elections, claiming foreign interference after Palestinian-Israeli parties secured a 19-seat bloc.

“Those protests have gone unanswered because the results have been certified and every relevant authority has dismissed the allegations that there were widespread violations,” Odeh said.

Eisenkot has yet to strike deals with parties that could bring him to the 61-seat majority needed to form a government. If neither Eisenkot nor Netanyahu forms a coalition, another round of elections could follow.

The global gas market could remain tight well into next year as the Iran war chokes off supplies and intensifies competition among importers, and Europe enters the heating season with the lowest levels of gas in storage in more than a

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has said that anyone expecting a shift in the United States’ policy towards his country is “seriously mistaken”, hours after midterm elections dealt a blow to President Donald Trump.

His comments came as other Iranian officials struck a more optimistic tone on Wednesday, following the results of the US vote, which saw Democrats score a major victory by taking control of both chambers of Congress.

“Those who still harbour even the slightest hope that the behaviour of the hegemonic system might change through partisan or factional shifts, or who imagine that making concessions to the United States can dissuade it from hostility towards the Iranian nation, are seriously mistaken,” Khamenei said in a written statement published on his website.

He said that Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz had shattered the “myth of America’s invincibility”, and warned that any renewed US attack would draw a far wider response.

Trump himself has acknowledged the US-Israel war on Iran that began in February likely impacted his Republican Party’s poor performance in the elections, saying voters were probably not ready “for the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline”.

Khamenei said Iran’s confrontation with the US had reached a point where “every day and every hour” had become a time of resistance against “the Great Satan”. His message was to mark the National Day of the Fight Against Global Arrogance, which falls each year on November 4, the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the US embassy in Tehran.

The supreme leader described Iran’s management of the strait and what he called the elimination of US military bases in regional countries as a reaction to US “aggression and crimes” during the war.

“In the event of repeated transgressions, it will take on much wider dimensions,” he said.

‘Americans said NO TO WAR’

The supreme leader struck a “cautious” note on Wednesday, warning that a party shift in the US would not persuade Washington to abandon its hostility against Iran, noted Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar Atas, reporting from Tehran.

This contrasted with a more celebratory mood among other Iranian officials reacting to the Republican defeat, Atas said.

“Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator with Washington and his country’s parliament speaker.

“If the US [government] betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare,” he added on X.

Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser and assistant to the supreme leader, said Trump had been “slapped in the face by his own people”.

“The true winner in this arena was Iran, which transferred the cost of the war into the United States,” he wrote on X.

Judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on Telegram: “Trump was defeated both in war and in politics; we will certainly impose further defeats on him; this is still only the early outcome.” He added that November 4 “has always been a day of defeat for the Americans” and honoured “the dear martyred students of Minab”.

Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy head for communications at the president’s office, said Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, “blind adherence” to Israel’s interests and the “futile war” with Iran had handed the Republicans their biggest defeat.

Atas said Iranians believe a Democratic-controlled Congress could restrain Trump and make him “less reckless” over the war, with some Republicans wary ahead of the 2028 elections. But some in Tehran fear that because officials have framed the result as a defeat imposed by Iran, Trump could “personalise the matter” and launch a new round of war “in an act of revenge”.

The US has warned it could carry out a short but intensive military campaign against Iran after the midterms.

Hamidreza Moghadamfar, an adviser to the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Iran would hit targets beyond US bases if Gulf states allowed Washington to launch attacks from their territory. Speaking at a rally in Bandar Abbas, he named the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and said Iran would respond with a “new doctrine and new technology”.

By the end of the decade, China could threaten satellites with space-based directed energy weapons, according to a new report from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). This would add a dangerous new anti-satellite (ASAT) capability to Beijing’s arsenal, which already includes ground-based directed energy weapons that can disrupt, degrade, or damage satellites. The report, released Monday, offered another glimpse into what is to come as the potential for conflict in space only continues to grow.

The unclassified DIA report is based largely on open-source information, with a cutoff date of July. It was published to detail growing threats from China, Russia and emerging powers Iran and North Korea to global interests in the space domain. The report’s release also took place as the U.S. is becoming increasingly open about its own ASAT capabilities. Last month, for instance, U.S. military officials acknowledged for the first time that America has weapons in orbit.

“The PLA probably considers DEWs [directed energy weapons] ideal counterspace systems because they can cause both reversible and nonreversible effects against satellites,” the report, titled Challenges to Security in Space, explains. “By the late 2020s, China may field space-based directed energy systems and higher-powered ground-based directed energy systems capable of threatening satellites in higher orbits.”

The report did not provide specifics about whether China is developing lasers, high-powered microwaves, particle beams or a combination of these capabilities.

We have reached out to the agency for more information but did not immediately receive a response.

Reversible attacks include efforts to jam satellite signals or temporarily blind their optics. The latter can be done with devices like laser dazzlers.

DIA reported that in 2021 the People’s Liberation Army media “asserted that laser weapons were entering a golden age; they cited dazzling (i.e., temporarily blinding a sensor) as one of the many operational uses of laser weapons.”

Non-reversible attacks cause permanent damage. It could also involve a range of fully destructive options from directed energy attacks that burn a hole in a satellite using a laser or frying its delicate systems using a high-power microwave emissions to spraying its solar panels with aerosol pigment to direct-ascent intercepts and even nuclear weapon detonations in space. Physically tampering with the satellite using another satellite is another option.

China’s presence in orbit has been dramatically expanding in recent years. The report pointed out that as of July 2026, Beijing’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) satellite fleet “contained more than 510 systems, having more than tripled since 2018. While many of these ISR satellites are ostensibly affiliated with commercial and civil missions, the dual-use nature of their capabilities and possibly the Chinese military-civil fusion policies means the data or imagery they collect can be used by the PLA.”

China is also expanding its capabilities to new concepts like spaceplane developments, which we highlighted in a story about their capabilities yesterday based on details from the DIA report.

In addition to possibly being placed on satellites, DEWs could also potentially be added to spaceplanes, which can operate in a less predictable fashion than satellites, even if just for experimental roles or limited capability sets.

Though thin on details, the report reiterated the reality that China’s academia has been working toward space-based weapons for years.

“Since at least 2006, government-affiliated academics have investigated aerospace engineering technologies associated with space-based kinetic weapons—a class of weapon used to attack ground, sea, or air targets from orbit,” the DIA explained. “China’s space-based kinetic weapons research included methods of reentry, separation of payload, delivery vehicles, and transfer orbits for targeting purposes.”

Much of the PLA’s ASAT doctrine “characterizes the systems as useful deterrents against external involvement in a regional conflict or as a method to manage conflict escalation,” the DIA proffered. However, should China opt to strike first, one of the first and main targets would be satellites the U.S. and allies rely on for space-based sensing and communications. As we have often explained, even reversible attacks against any of this space-based infrastructure could have major impacts on the U.S. military’s ability to effectively conduct combat operations.

The DIA report noted that to date, China’s publicly known space-based ASAT capabilities center on satellites that can approach and grab others, which we have written about in the past. In one such instance, a Chinese satellite was observed in 2022 grabbing another satellite and pulling it out of its normal geosynchronous orbit and into a “super-graveyard drift orbit.” The maneuver raised questions about the potential applications of these types of satellites designed to maneuver close to other satellites for inspection or manipulation and added to growing concerns about China’s space program overall.

The threat satellites can already pose to others was highlighted earlier this month, when a Russian satellite, Kosmos 2612, may have passed within approximately 85 feet (26 meters) of ICEYE-X36. That is a U.S.-registered satellite belonging to commercial imagery provider ICEYE that was providing imagery to Ukraine. While no contact or damage was detected, the incident raised concerns that the Russian satellite could have harmed the ICEYE one purposely or even inadvertently.

You can see a time-lapse video of part of that encounter below.

When it comes to discussing weapons in space capable of attacking other on-orbit objects and the effects they could impose, it should be noted that this domain inherently creates complications when it comes to attributing any form of attack, should one occur. Satellites do malfunction, sometimes with catastrophic results, but it is not always possible to determine the cause. As a result, the challenge in attributing an event could delay a response, if needed, or spark one inadvertently.

As we previously reported, in January, “a Russian inspector satellite launched in 2014 appeared to break up unexpectedly. Sometime around the end of July, the Chinese reconnaissance satellite Yaogan 50-02, which had only been launched some four months earlier, also broke up in orbit. On Sept. 13, a similar fate befell the U.S. Cold War-era Farrah III spy satellite, also known as USA 32. At the time of writing, no firm evidence has emerged to indicate any of these incidents were the result of hostile action rather than accidents of some kind.”

Directed energy attacks, in particular, from one satellite against another, may be very hard to attribute as they can happen over longer distances in the vacuum of space. They would also presumably allow the attacking satellite to engage multiple targets, even in a relatively short period of time, making it one of the most attractive potential anti-satellite capabilities on orbit.

In addition to talking about Chinese space-based ASAT capabilities, the DIA report raised concerns about a wide array of threats from the PLA as well as Russia, North Korea and Iran.

The report did not address Russian space-based directed energy weapons plans. However, it did note that, like China, Russia does have ground-based laser systems already capable of affecting U.S. and allied satellites. The threat from these systems is not theoretical. They are part of an array of ASAT measures that China and Russia have used against the U.S. for years.

For instance, back in 2021, a top U.S. Space Force general warned that Russia and China were launching “reversible attacks,” such as electronic warfare jamming, temporarily blinding optics with lasers, and cyberattacks, on U.S. satellites “every single day.”

“China and Russia will continue to pursue new and improved counterspace capabilities to exploit a perceived U.S. and allied reliance on space-based assets,” DIA’s report concluded.

“China has developed and probably will continue to develop weapons for use against satellites in orbit to disrupt, damage and destroy adversary space capabilities,” the DIA suggested. “Russia is currently capable of targeting satellites in LEO with both terrestrial and orbital systems and is interested in developing systems for targeting more distant orbits.”

China and Russia aren’t the only adversaries the U.S. should be concerned about when it comes to space warfare, the DIA warned.

“In 2026, with the onset of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. and Iran took offensive actions against each other’s space capabilities to degrade and disrupt military actions on both sides,” the agency stated. “Iran and North Korea will continue to build their civil and military and space capabilities and maintain their respective jamming capabilities.”

Meanwhile, the extent of current U.S. plans for space-based directed energy weapons is not publicly known. However, in a story we wrote last year about President Donald Trump’s plans for the Golden Dome missile shield system, we noted the role that directed energy weapons could play in that effort.

For years, U.S. space-based weapons plans have been shrouded in secrecy, but as we mentioned earlier in this story, that changed last month.

During his keynote speech at the Air & Space Forces Association’s (AFA) 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference, at which TWZ was in attendance, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink made a bombshell admission, disclosing that there are on-orbit weapons now deployed to protect America’s interests in space. 

Meink declined to offer any details about what kinds of weapons they were. However, whatever they are, these weapons support a Space Control mission set, and the U.S. Space Force shared additional details about that directly with TWZ. 

“Space control encapsulates the mission areas required to contest and control the space domain – employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities through disruption, degradation and even destruction, if necessary,” a Space Force spokesperson told us. “These capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes at the direction of combatant commands. U.S. military operations are conducted in compliance with international law, including the Outer Space Treaty and LOAC [the Law of Armed Conflict].”

While the DIA report does not make any new revelations about China’s space-based directed energy program, it serves as a stark reminder that this is a capability that could present a widening threat in the next few years.

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

Taiz, Yemen – It was approaching 10:30am in the dialysis centre of the Republican Hospital in Taiz when a machine began filtering excess fluids, toxins and salts from the blood of Omar Mukhtar Hammoud.

The 16-year-old suffers from kidney failure and is one of 270 patients who regularly receive dialysis at the centre in the government-held city in southwest Yemen. But with essential medical supplies and fuel running critically low under the renewed Houthi siege, doctors fear they may soon be unable to provide the treatment that keeps their patients alive.

Dr Essam Mahyoub Dahan, the centre’s director, warned that a complete shutdown could happen within days.

“Because of the siege and the shortage of diesel and medical solutions, we have recently been forced to reduce dialysis sessions from four hours to just two and a half,” Dahan told Al Jazeera. “We know this is not adequate, but we have no choice if we are to keep the centre operating for as long as possible before it shuts down completely.”

Dahan said the centre’s remaining stocks of specialised dialysis solutions were also close to running out.

The supplies, which are expensive, are normally provided by the Yemeni Ministry of Health every three months. But the latest delivery which was due earlier this month  failed to arrive because of the Houthi siege on Taiz city. It began in the first week of October after Houthi advances in the Taiz countryside.

The city was previously under complete Houthi siege between 2015 and 2016, in the early years of Yemen’s ongoing war.

Across Taiz governorate, where battles are raging between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Iranian-allied Houthi fighters, the number of patients at risk is far greater.

In an October 12 statement, the governorate’s health office warned that the continued siege and obstruction of essential supplies could endanger the lives of 1,110 patients with kidney failure. They depend on dialysis services in the governorate’s hospitals, which collectively provide about 210 dialysis sessions a day.

International humanitarian and health organisations have issued similar warnings about the impact of the siege on the already fragile healthcare system in Taiz.

On Thursday, Amnesty International called on the Houthis to immediately reopen vital roads into and around the city, warning that the closure of the main road between Taiz and the southern port city of Aden threatened hundreds of thousands of civilians with losing access to food, water and healthcare.

Fuel: A lifeline for hospitals

Taiz’s hospitals depend heavily on diesel-powered generators because much of the city’s electricity infrastructure was destroyed during the war that began 11 years ago and has not been restored.

The renewed Houthi siege has severely disrupted the entry of fuel, including the diesel needed to run hospital generators and lifesaving medical equipment.

Dr Shaheed al-Ameri, deputy director-general for technical affairs at the Republican Hospital, said the shortages have had a devastating impact on medical services.

“A very large part of this suffering is because of the shortage of diesel,” he told Al Jazeera. “We have no reserve diesel supplies. Our stocks ran out early in the siege and we are now buying it on the black market almost every day, at prices that have reached five times what they were before the siege.”

Al-Ameri warned that the longer the siege continues, the more prices will rise and the further medical services will deteriorate.

The hospital has already suspended operations in some departments, including essential units, he said.

“If this situation continues much longer, we fear we will reach a complete and comprehensive collapse of healthcare services,” he said.

The shortages are not confined to the Republican Hospital. On October 22, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that critical shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicines and medical supplies were threatening lifesaving healthcare throughout  Taiz governorate, with some hospital services already disrupted.

According to the WHO, 42 health facilities in Taiz city had reported severe shortages of essential supplies. Hospitals and ambulances require at least 156,000 litres of fuel a month to continue functioning.

The organisation also warned that diesel shortages threaten to disrupt oxygen production, water pumping, vaccine refrigeration and sanitation services, increasing the risks of disease outbreaks, particularly among displaced families and other vulnerable groups.

The United Nations has separately warned that the restrictions on supplies are bringing Taiz’s health system close to collapse and urged the Houthis to allow humanitarian assistance and essential goods to enter without obstruction.

Oxygen shortages deepen crisis

In its October 12 statement, Taiz’s health office warned that continued restrictions on fuel deliveries could lead to the shutdown of medical oxygen production plants, further endangering patients.

Taysir al-Samei, the health office’s media officer, said that would dramatically worsen the crisis.

“Many medical departments depend on oxygen, particularly operating theatres, inpatient wards, intensive care units and incubators for premature babies,” al-Samei said.

“Most hospitals have already suspended services in some units because of the shortage of diesel and the lack of necessary medical solutions, as well as shortages of medical staff who are struggling to get to work because of the lack of transport,” he added.

He warned that if conditions continued to deteriorate at the same pace, some hospitals could stop providing services in the coming days.

At the Republican Hospital, al-Ameri said that shortages were also affecting diagnostics and treatment. The availability of laboratory reagents had fallen to just 10 to 15 percent of previous levels, he said, while approximately half of the medicines normally available were now out of stock.

Prices for the remaining medicines had doubled, he said, placing them further out of reach for patients already struggling with Yemen’s worsening economic crisis.

The continued fighting and shelling around Taiz have increased the number of wounded people requiring emergency care – placing additional pressure on facilities already struggling with shortages of surgical supplies, anaesthetics and intravenous fluids.

Abdul Badi Abdulwuhab, 53, is another dialysis patient in the Republican Hospital, struggling to cope with the shorter dialysis sessions.

His voice was filled with desperation.

“Because of these measures, I suffer from weakness and I cannot bear the pain,” Abdul Badi told Al Jazeera. “Two and a half hours is not enough to remove all the fluids and toxins from my body.”

Dr Dahan said that the patient’s condition had deteriorated since his sessions were shortened.

“These measures are not effective for many patients,” Dahan said. “The only solution is to end the siege and return things to the way they were.”

The world authority on threatened wildlife classified 96 percent of all coral reef systems as “critically endangered”.

Almost all of the world’s shallow-water coral reefs face an extremely high risk of collapse in the next 50 years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has warned in a new global assessment.

In a report released on Thursday, the world authority on threatened wildlife classified 96 percent of the planet’s coral reef systems as “critically endangered”, its highest risk category, with total extinction possible by 2075.

“The future threat of climate change is looming and severe, and that poses a very high risk to the survival of these ecosystems,” said Mishal Gudka, scientific lead of the IUCN Red List of Coral Reef Ecosystems assessment.

Corals are heat-sensitive and particularly vulnerable to human-driven climate change, which is warming the world’s oceans and increasing the frequency and intensity of damaging bleaching events.

When a reef collapses, hard corals disappear and are replaced by algae, rubble and sponges. As a result, the reef no longer supports a diverse ecosystem that can include everything from tiny invertebrates to reef fish like grouper.

The emergence this year of a “super” El Nino, the natural warming phenomenon, also presents a risk to corals, Gudka said at a news conference at the UN’s COP17 biodiversity summit in Yerevan, Armenia.

It’s the latest dose of bad news for coral reefs, which are critical sources for seafood and tourism and often serve as buffers against coastal erosion and storms.

Sometimes dubbed “rainforests of the sea”, they have some of the world’s richest biodiversity and support a quarter of marine species as well as coastal communities and businesses.

Most of the world’s famous reef systems – including the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Coral Triangle in the Western Pacific Ocean and Southeast Asia, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System and the Red Sea coral reefs – are critically endangered, according to the assessment.

Elevated risk of extinction

For its report, the IUCN used the “middle-of-the-road” scenario from the UN’s panel of climate experts that projects global temperatures rising 2.7C above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

Its analysis examined 127 tropical and subtropical coral systems covering 188,362 square kilometres.

A week ago, another IUCN study in the journal Nature found that nearly 44 percent of reef-building coral species face an elevated risk of extinction due to climate change. A year ago, a survey found that harmful bleaching of the world’s coral had grown to include 84 percent of the ocean’s reefs, the most intense of its kind in recorded history.

Despite its warning, the IUCN said coral reefs in most parts of the world “are not yet lost”.

“Coral reefs have shown a remarkable ability to bounce back from devastating bleaching events,” said Gudka. “Pockets of surviving, resilient coral reefs can still remain in the future, so we must do everything within our reach to set them up for success.”

Emmerdale actress Claire King, who plays icon Kim Tate on the ITV soap, has teased the fallout to Thea Ramsden’s stabbing, hinting it could lead to a shock death

An Emmerdale character faces a gruesome death next week on the ITV soap.

As DS Thea Ramsden is stabbed during a showdown with her secret mother Kim Tate, Kim actress Claire King warns that the detective might die. As a terrified Kim frets over missing Baby Tate, some Halloween horror leaves her fearing for her safety.

Things come to a head when Thea shows up at Home Farm, with Kim unaware that Thea is her long-lost daughter. As tensions rise, and Thea is accused of kidnapping Baby Tate, Kim tries to escape but is grabbed by Thea.

Kim panics, and stabs Thea leaving her injured. But will Kim’s secret daughter survive? Hinting at Thea’s fate, Claire shared: “Thea turns up, and at first Kim doesn’t think it’s Thea at all, so she tells her what’s going on—the noises, the bangs, the things like that.

“Then Kim suddenly thinks, ‘Oh my gosh, it is it’s Thea.’ So she tries to run and escape. She hides, but Thea comes through, locks the back door before she can bolt through it. So as she’s running round the table, she kind of slips, and Thea manages to grab hold of her.

“And in a panic, she’s thinking, ‘I’m going to get hurt.’ So, and she just happens to stumble across a cheese knife, sharp cheese knife, and in her panic state, she stabs Thea.”

On whether it could lead to Thea’s death, Claire teased: “The knife has gone in. She’s not bleeding out, but she does pass out, and and Kim’s in total panic mode. She doesn’t know whether she can save her or not.

“I think she’d be absolutely beside herself if she realised that Thea was her daughter at this point because she spent all this time trying to get to know her, having lost her 27 years ago, and and now she could lose her forever.”

If Thea survives, Claire reckons Kim could face big trouble. Claire said: “Thea’s been stalking Kim for a long time, so she knows that she could do her harm.

“And this is the worst-case scenario now because she thinks that, you know, Thea will actually get her back and put her in prison for this. So it’s it’s whether, it’s how Thea is going to respond to this in hospital when she gets treated.

“The police would get involved, and obviously if something happens to her, um, or if the worst-case scenario, she dies, she could end up back in prison again.” Claire also talked about the changes to villainous Kim over the years, but added she was still “ruthless”.

Claire said: “I think she is mellowing, but it’s mainly because we’ve been seeing a lot of children about and babies, and and the horses and things, and those are the things that make her soft. But underneath she’s she’s still got a a steely hard core, you know. And a very ruthless side.”

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Doha, Qatar — Qatar’s deputy prime minister has warned that global energy shockwaves from the US-Israel war on Iran have yet to reach their peak, raising concerns about further disruption to supplies, international trade and economic growth.

Speaking at the Global Security Forum in Doha on Monday, Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Minister of State for Defence Affairs, identified several threats facing Qatar and the wider Gulf, including risks to sovereignty and disruptions to energy supplies.

“We haven’t reached the peak with respect to energy,” he said, warning of further repercussions “in the coming days and months”.

His remarks come amid continued instability in the Strait of Hormuz – a vital waterway for global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments – following the US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, and Tehran’s retaliatory strikes across the region.

Iranian strikes on Qatar’s Ras Laffan industrial complex in March damaged facilities, with repairs expected to take several years.

“We were surprised,” Al Thani said when asked about the attack, adding that there had since been “a lot of discussion with Iran”.

He said Qatar had drawn lessons from the strikes, “to make sure that all of our assets will be protected from any unexpected attack”.

Al Thani also warned against imposing tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

“Transit fees should not be applied,” he said, adding that uncertainty over the waterway would ultimately affect consumers worldwide.

‘We never stop our communication’

Despite the attacks, Al Thani said Qatar continued to maintain contact with Tehran.

“We never stop our communication,” he said, adding that the two countries remained in touch at different levels despite their disagreements.

He described Qatar’s relationship with Iran before the attacks as one of trust, pointing to their shared offshore gasfield and longstanding economic interests.

Al Thani expressed hope that mediation efforts involving Qatar, Pakistan and Oman would help produce an agreement between the United States, Iran and other parties, including Israel.

He said a sustainable settlement would require broader regional dialogue involving Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Pakistan and Turkiye, in consultation with international allies.

“We need to build this on trust,” he added.

Al Thani also suggested developing economic ties with Iran to prevent future conflicts, citing cooperation between France and Germany following decades of hostilities.

“Iran is our neighbour. We need to find ways to live with them,” he said.

US defence ties

Al Thani also highlighted Qatar’s longstanding defence partnership with Washington, saying that “more than 90 percent” of attacks had been prevented through shared expertise and military capabilities developed over the past three to four decades.

He said Qatar was continuing to develop Al Udeid airbase, which hosts US forces and military personnel from other partner countries.

The base was itself targeted by Iran during the conflict, with Qatar reporting that it had shot down two Iranian warplanes during an attack in early March.

Al Thani also announced plans for a new regional defence partnership, saying Qatar was prioritising several aspects including air defence, counter-drone measures and cybersecurity.

“I’m happy to announce today also that soon we’re going to announce a new partnership,” he said, without naming the regional partners involved.

The deputy prime minister stressed that Qatar’s mediation efforts did not diminish its commitment to defending its territory.

“Mediation doesn’t mean that we should not be ready for any defensive action from our side,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for “calm and order” after a major day of protests turned into rioting and looting on Saturday, and as some disorder continued in Paris on Sunday.

In a national address from the Élysée Palace, he warned those who had taken part not to “escalate”, adding: “We all feel anger and shame.”

Some 550,000 demonstrators took to the streets for largely peaceful protests against rising fuel prices, the cost of living and deteriorating public services, including schools.

Macron said a distinction must be drawn between the “legitimate demands” of protesters and “those who destroyed, smashed and looted”.

Police have arrested about 2,400 people, according to France’s interior ministry.

The French president said “nothing justifies” the “unbridled” violence seen and said those involved would face justice.

Groups of rioters, some dressed in black and wearing masks and balaclavas, also came out in Paris, Marseille and other towns and cities, with some setting fire to cars and buildings.

On Sunday, looting and clashes with police continued on a smaller scale in parts of the capital and Lyon.

Tear gas and stun grenades were fired at hundreds of people in Paris, according to the AFP news agency, and bottles and rocks were again hurled at police.

Without a quick deal to move fertiliser through the strait, agricultural productivity would ‘significantly drop’.

A senior United Nations official has warned that parts of Asia and Africa could face a food security crisis unless Iran and the United States quickly agree on a UN-backed plan to move fertiliser through the embattled Strait of Hormuz.

UN ⁠Under-Secretary-General Jorge Moreira da Silva said on Wednesday that it was “absolutely critical” that the two countries agree to the proposal within weeks as planting season approaches. It calls for a UN-staffed coordination centre in Oman to help register vessels and oversee their safe passage in the waterway, through which a large portion of key global fertiliser inputs traditionally flow.

“If we miss that planting season, the productivity of agriculture would significantly drop and the impact on prices will significantly increase,” Moreira da Silva told Reuters on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, Thailand.

Farmers operate strict crop calendars, and even slight delays could severely affect yield.

‘Negligible’ fertiliser shipments

Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted since the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, with Iran targeting vessels in the strait and the US and Iran exchanging fire in and around the waterway.

The disruption has hit global supplies of urea, the world’s most widely used nitrogen fertiliser, as well as seaborne sulphur, a key input. Before the war, roughly a third of global urea shipments and nearly half of seaborne sulphur passed through the strait.

Although some ships have been able to sail through amid the crisis, fertiliser products have made up a “very negligible” share of moving cargo, according to the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute.

Moreira da Silva said the UN-backed fertiliser mechanism, drawn up in March, could be activated within seven to 10 days if both Iran and the US agree.

Under the plan, UN monitors would work alongside local authorities at Gulf ports to verify cargo loading. Ships would be tracked during transit, and additional inspections could ⁠be carried out if countries raised concerns about a vessel or its cargo, said Moreira da Silva. He did not say why the US and Iran have not yet agreed.

The passage of only five vessels per day through the Strait of Hormuz could keep fertiliser supplies flowing to countries in critical need, he added.

‘Let us do our job’

The UN mechanism could work alongside negotiations for a “comprehensive deal” to restore freedom of navigation in the strait, Moreira da Silva said.

Iran and the US have exchanged proposals through intermediaries since a June interim ceasefire collapsed. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz have stalled over Tehran’s conditions and Washington’s insistence on addressing Iran’s nuclear programme from the outset.

“What we are telling them is, while you continue your discussions towards a comprehensive deal, let us work, let us do our job,” said Moreira da Silva.

His plea comes amid growing concern that fertiliser shortages could hit global food supplies.

In May, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned that fertiliser scarcity could tighten food supplies from late 2026 into 2027, and would likely hit countries facing climate or other crises much harder.

In South Asia, where most rely on imported fertiliser, farmers are already struggling because of soaring costs and fertiliser scarcity. On Wednesday, farmers in Spain took to the streets to protest rising production costs amid high oil and fertiliser prices.